"Sea Knight" Jinbe

Sabaody Archipelago, Area 8.

The sea breeze, heavy with salty moisture, swept past the buildings lining the street.

There was not much difference between this place and the previous areas. Pirates frequented it just as often, traces of pirate brawls still remained all around, and the air carried the faint mingled scent of alcohol and seawater.

However, because of the Marines' pirate-cleansing operation several months ago, the number of pirates visible on the streets had decreased significantly.

The once-noisy taverns and black markets had also reined themselves in considerably.

And now—

There was not a single civilian in sight. Even the scattered pirates who usually wandered about had vanished. The entire street lay empty, with only the howling sea wind breaking the silence.

The ones who shattered that silence were several figures that looked neither fully human nor fully fish.

They came in all shapes and sizes. Some were covered in fine scales, some had streamlined tail fins, and some had arms transformed into thick tentacles.

Upon closer inspection, they were Fish-Men who lived in the deep sea year-round and rarely set foot on land.

And the ones fiercely fighting them were not the pirates who often captured them.

It was a young Marine wearing a coat of justice, the rank insignia embroidered on his shoulders clearly marking him as a Marine Commodore.

It was none other than Beiyuan Heng.

Beiyuan Heng gripped his long blade with both hands, and the clang of metal striking metal echoed throughout the street.

Sparks flew where the blades crossed, vanishing the instant they landed on the stone pavement.

The Fish-Men surrounding him were divided into two distinct groups, their coordination extremely seamless. They were clearly veterans who had gone through countless real battles.

One group tightly entangled Beiyuan Heng on land. Most of the weapons in their hands were swords and blades tempered in seawater, and every strike carried the unique brute strength of Fish-Men.

The most conspicuous among them had eight agile tentacles, each holding a short blade. He was Hatchan, the Fish-Man known for using the Six-Sword Style.

His tentacles moved with perfect flexibility, and the six short blades danced so densely that they formed a fierce net of steel.

The other group lurked in a seawater alley nearby, their bodies half-hidden in the murky water. From time to time, they emerged and used Fish-Man Karate and Fish-Man Jujutsu to hurl powerful whirlpools of water at Beiyuan Heng.

The whirlpools howled as they tore through the air. Wherever they struck, water exploded outward, smashing the ground into pits and craters.

Speaking of which, Beiyuan Heng encountering this group of Fish-Men had been entirely accidental.

After that Marine victory banquet, aside from spending time every day practicing swordsmanship in areas firmly controlled by the Marines, constantly improving both his swordsmanship and his recognition within the Marines—

He would also often take the initiative to clear out pirates in fringe areas not fully occupied by the Marines, all so that the pirates hiding there would never forget his name.

Today, as usual, he had left the Marine base under the pretext of conducting a patrol and searching for traces of Fisher Tiger, the leader of the Sun Pirates.

He had thought it would be an ordinary patrol, yet by sheer coincidence, he ran into this group of secretive Fish-Men at a street corner in Area 8.

Even more unfortunately, he had brought several young Marine soldiers with him in order to raise his recognition more efficiently.

Under normal circumstances, if no colleagues had been around, Beiyuan Heng would not have minded letting these Fish-Men from the Sun Pirates leave.

After all, these Fish-Men had not provoked him, and he also disliked the Celestial Dragons.

Letting this group from the Sun Pirates go would have been no great matter.

But now, he was within the World Government's territory, with fellow Marines beside him. As a Marine Commodore, he had no room to retreat and could only act decisively.

He first quickly escorted the Marine soldiers beside him into an abandoned building by the street and told them to summon the Marines.

Only then did he turn around and fiercely engage the Fish-Men.

Fortunately, he did not see Fisher Tiger, the legendary leader of the Sun Pirates, among them.

With Tiger's strength—the ability to storm the Holy Land of Mary Geoise alone, wreak havoc, and retreat unscathed—he could probably defeat Beiyuan Heng without much effort.

Although being defeated by a top powerhouse like Tiger would not have been shameful, it would have done nothing for his own growth in recognition or swordsmanship. That was something Beiyuan Heng could never accept.

Tightening his grip on his long blade, Beiyuan Heng's gaze flickered slightly as he locked onto Hatchan, the Six-Sword Style user, across from him.

The long blade in his hand was not a standard Marine weapon, but a treasure he had seized from Roger's Bar in the Sabaody Archipelago.

It was a genuine one of the Fifty Skillful Blades, named Demon Cutter.

Back at the bar, the old craftsman responsible for maintaining the blade had once told him of its origins. The swordsmith who forged it had once been wildly ambitious, hoping to use its sharpness and Toughness to replace the legendary cursed blades passed down through the world. Thus, he named it Demon Cutter, intending for it to seize the might of cursed blades.

However, though that swordsmith's skill had been exquisite, he ultimately failed to reach the realm of forging Great Grade Blades. In the end, he could only create this ordinary Skillful Blade. Even so, its sharpness far surpassed that of ordinary swords.

The thought flashed through his mind in an instant. The battlefield did not allow Beiyuan Heng to be distracted for long. It was not that these Fish-Men were particularly strong, but that he needed to know why they were here and whether there was anyone behind them.

At that moment, the battle on the street had already reached its fiercest stage.

Seeing that he could not break through after attacking for so long, a trace of impatience flashed in Hatchan's eyes. He suddenly roared, and his aura surged.

"Six-Sword Style Secret Technique: Six-Sword Dance!"

Before the words had even faded, Hatchan's body began spinning at high speed, his six tentacles moving in sync with their six blades.

As the blades spun, they formed an impenetrable circular blade formation that charged fiercely toward Beiyuan Heng amid a howling gale.

Through their earlier probing exchanges, Hatchan had already understood clearly that in a one-on-one fight, he was no match for this young Marine Commodore.

Even with his companions constantly interfering from the side, Beiyuan Heng had still suppressed him with ease.

He knew that he had to end this quickly. If they delayed any longer and the Marines arrived after hearing the news, this group of Fish-Men who had infiltrated the surface would likely all be captured on the spot. What awaited them then would be Marine imprisonment.

Watching Hatchan's attack rush toward him, Beiyuan Heng lightly shook his head inwardly, without the slightest trace of panic in his eyes.

By his standards of swordsmanship, Hatchan had only barely reached the threshold of swordsmanship specialization.

His moves looked fierce, but they lacked proper structure and were riddled with openings. As for strength, speed, and combat awareness, they were even further beneath Beiyuan Heng.

Beiyuan Heng tightened his grip on Demon Cutter, ready to crush Hatchan cleanly and decisively.

But at that moment, a massive torrent suddenly surged toward him from behind, moving at an astonishing speed.

The torrent carried immense water pressure and spun rapidly without pause, like a waterfall descending from the heavens. With overwhelming force, it crashed down on Beiyuan Heng.

Before the water even truly reached him, the powerful air pressure contained within had already flattened the stone slabs beneath Beiyuan Heng's feet, and fine cracks even appeared across the ground.

"Fish-Man Jujutsu: Ocean Current: One-Handed Shoulder Throw!"

A heavy voice came from the direction of the sea, carrying the deep resonance unique to Fish-Men.

Beiyuan Heng's heart tightened. With no time to think and no chance to care about the charging Hatchan, he flashed aside in an instant, dodging at the absolute limit of his speed and barely avoiding the deadly torrent.

The torrent struck where he had been standing and exploded instantly. The enormous impact shattered the ground to pieces, sending water several yards into the air and splashing the surrounding walls with wet stains.

He quickly turned toward the sea, his brows furrowing slightly.

The Fish-Men lurking in the water had also used techniques that launched currents before, but their power had been far weaker than this. They could not even break through his defenses and had only served as interference.

Sure enough, when he looked toward the sea, a new figure slowly emerged from the water's surface.

The man was immensely built, over two meters tall, broad-shouldered and thick-backed. His body was covered in dark blue scales, two sharp fangs protruded from his lower jaw, and his gaze was calm yet powerful.

Beiyuan Heng's heart stirred as he instantly recognized him.

He was none other than "Sea Knight" Jinbe.

He was also the core combat force of the Sun Pirates, second only to Fisher Tiger.